Celltrion Chairman Seo Jeong-jin lost a case in which he asked the National Tax Service (NTS) to pay back about 13.2 billion won in gift taxes.
The Incheon District Court ruled against Suh in a lawsuit filed in January with the NTS for the return of 13.21 billion won that he paid in 2013 and 2014.
The court ruled that it was justifiable to impose a gift tax, considering that the transfer of wealth was actually made due to excessive concentration of work on a certain company.
The object of the gift tax levied by the NTS was the profits generated by the transaction between the Celltrion and the Celltrion Health Care.
Celltrion produces medicines and hands them over exclusively to Celltrion Healthcare. Celltrion Healthcare is responsible for the distribution and sale of medicines that it received from Celltrion.
According to the ruling, the sales of Celltrion made through Celltrion Healthcare were 94.57 percent in 2012 and 98.65 percent in 2013.
Both companies' controlling shareholders are Chairman Seo. At the time of the imposition of the gift tax, Chairman Suh indirectly held the equity of the Celltrion (20.09 percent) through Celltrion Holdings (96.99 percent) and directly held the equity of the Celltrion Healthcare (50.31 percent).